EW movie critics Owen Gleiberman and Lisa Schwarzbaum praise Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, out this Friday, as a realistic, suspenseful, and intricate drama. In this week’s Movie Talk, Owen calls Lincoln “one of the most authentic historical dramas I’ve ever seen” and Lisa expounds on the way the film takes on the role of government: “Although this is very much about Lincoln, you can also look at it as an entirely different story abut democratic process.”

The critics discuss Daniel Day-Lewis’s lauded performance as Lincoln and well as the character roles of Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln and David Strathairn as William Seward in the discussion below.